Keilana's Swimming Lessons

Keilana Can Swim!
Yes she has her floaties on but there wasn't anyone else at our friends' pool to take the picture and I don't trust her just yet to jump off in the deep end without them. But she CAN do it very well all by herself! To me, she looks like she is practicing her Irish Dancing in this picture.

Well, this was quite the adventure! Keilana never has been a big fan of water, and even baths have been a challenge because she doesn't like water anywhere near her face or going in her ears. I realized that I was asking for it by signing her up but I feel it's important that children know how to swim on their own for safety precautions. We talked about it for weeks, trying to prepare her for it, but she never warmed up to the idea. We (my sister and I) had to be in the water with the kids so pictures were hard to capture. I also hope that I can remember what happened each day because it all happened so quickly and some of it is sort of a blur. The kids' ages in the class were 20 months, 2 years and then our two 3 year olds. Here are our 3 days learning to swim.

Day 1:

I told Lana she could earn her along waited princess Pez dispensers if she tried her best and did everything she was asked by the teacher. You can tell she was VERY excited to get her Snow White since it's her favorite princess! Mrs. Autumn was great, she wasn't a drill Sargent but she was very firm with her and after doing this for 26 years, there wasn't nothing she hadn't seen, heard, or dealt with. Perfect for what we were about to go through. Of course I had to coerce Keilana to get in the water and for the straight 45 minutes we were in the pool, she cried and screamed. We didn't waste time about swimming and crammed a lot into one day! The first thing we started out doing was guiding them to the wall under the water--this taught them to keep mouths closed, eyes open, and to hold their breath. She stressed to ALWAYS count to 3 before putting them under. We also learned to "spread peanut butter & jelly" and "pedal our bicycles". This was teaching them to tread water. The last concept we learned were "turn arounds". We put them under facing against the pool wall, and they had to find and swim towards the wall. It was amazing to see that in just 20 -30 minutes Keilana was already learning to swim to the wall by herself. She made herself extra upset by not keeping her mouth closed, swallowing lots of water and complained of her nose and throat burning. Something fun we did was the "merry-go-round", even though I don't think most of the kids enjoyed it. All five of us parents got in a circle, including the instructor, and the kids would swim to the next parent in line. We'd count 1-2-3, put them under and off they went to the next parent until each child was back with their Mom or Dad. At the end, all kids jumped off the diving board twice as Mrs. Autumn caught them and then swam to Miss Ashley at the pool ladder. Lana wasn't thrilled about the idea but I told her she could do it by herself or I could help her and put her in the water. Although she was reluctant, I suppose she felt it was better that she do it and jumped on her own! Needless to say she was thrilled to get out of the water that day!

Day 2:

This is Mrs. Autumn's back yard going up to the pool. Keilana wasn't excited to be there at all, and in fact Day 2 was worse than day 1 and she unfortunately didn't earn her Pochahontas Pez for that day. Something that I did forget to mention in day 1 was that we (Mrs. Autumn and I) had to break the habit of her holding on to our bathing suits. The kiddo had a death grip on them and I had a VERY hard time prying her off! Each time she wouldn't let go of our bathing suit we'd dunk her under the water. Sounds harsh but it totally worked! So by the end of day 2 she wasn't holding on anymore! We practiced the same concepts from day one and then added "big arms" to learn the forward stroke. We also worked on form, putting face down, looking at the bottom of the pool so water doesn't go up the nose and their bodies are completely horizontal in the water. The reason Keilana didn't earn Pochahontas is because she continued to put up a fight the whole time (I would even say worse the Day 1), she learned to make the excuse she needed to go potty to get out of the pool, and she made herself SO upset that she threw up on the side of the pool. It was horrible!!! It went so bad that I decided to take her down the street from my sister's house to our friend Andrea's pool and practice, hoping to get her more comfortable with the water. It worked too! We were there for probably 2 hours and by the end of the time there, she was doing it on her own and enjoying herself! Hooray, there might be hope after all! Here is a video of her jumping off the diving board.

Day 3:

We got up a little earlier and took Keilana to my sister's neighbors' pool again to practice and get warmed up, hoping that it would make for an easier day 3. I'm so glad we put the extra time into helping her because it worked! She was a completley different child! She was jumping off the side of the pool by herself, I even had to keep an eye on her because she would do it without me knowing. She never cried, never screamed, didn't hold onto my swimsuit at all, and couldn't wait to get to the diving board! EVERYone there noticed the dramatic change and asked about it--practice makes perfect. Mrs. Autumn even complimented Keilana and told her she did a fantastic job. She did so well, I told her I would take her to get a happy meal--this is a BIG treat because we rarely get these. The last concept to learn was coming up for air. We did this by holding on to the back of the swimsuit (or a t-shirt was put on for boys and bikini wearers), putting them under, bringing them up, counting 1-2-3 and putting them back under. At the end of the lesson, Mrs. Autumn gave the kids a popsicle for their hard work. I'll definitely return to her next year for Kayden and maybe some more advance lessons for Miss Lana.

*Wendy's camera had the picture of the kids with their instructor, Mrs. Autumn, on it but it's on her website. I haven't gotten a chance to get it. You can also view Tyler's pictures and see what a GREAT swimmer he is.

When we were leaving Mrs. Autumn's house, Keilana said she wanted to go to the other pool, referring to Andrea's pool. So after her happy meal, we went to swim some more. After about 2 hours she said she was done and started whining. I knew she was exhausted from all the swimming AND skipping her nap--she fell asleep in my lap after about 3 minutes of swinging by the pool in the canopy swing. After all that hard work, I've got myself a little fish!